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Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Birthday Weekend

Getting older is a weird thing.. When your in your teens you can’t wait to get older. Your looking forward to 16 so you can drive; 17-18 we have prom and graduate from high school; 21 we finally can party!

By the time your passing your 21st birthday, the timeline gets a whole lot less exciting. Seriously.. I’ve been singing the Toys r Us theme song since 24.. “I don’t want to grow up, I’m a toys r us kid…”

Thankfully I have an amazing husband who refused to let me be bummed out about it.. and friends who helped in the 5 days of celebrating.. My birthday was actually on Monday, but I totally kept using “it’s my birthday weekend!” As an excuse to rock out and have a good time..

Friday night James and I met up with some friends. The boys played darts while the girls chatted..

(I love how the Guinness poster in the back in totally photo bombing us!)

The night didn’t go on to late since I had to work in the morning.. but it was a great time!

I woke up feeling pretty good and started bouncing off the walls straight away.. It’s funny how somedays I wake up with endless amounts of energy, while other mornings I can’t drag myself out of bed. James suggested we go out for breakfast- which is easily my favorite meal to eat out.. I love that I don’t have to shower or look fancy.. roll out of bed and go!

I had a broccoli and cheddar omelet.. and we shared a chocolate chip pancake course..

They didn’t stand a chance. After many cups of coffee we rolled ourselves home. I had to get to work and James had some stuff around the house he wanted to get done. The best thing about the new job? I don’t have to go in until 10.. that’s practically unheard of in the restaurant biz. One of my least favorite things? Making this dessert for customers..

Banana, Nutella crepes. I don’t know if you’ve ever worked with crepes, but they are paper thin.. and not a fan of getting sticky spreads smeared on them.. they just rip to bits and I’m left trying to piece them back together.. Therefore lots of caramel and chocolate sauces to cover up your mistakes.. Oh and the homemade whipped cream does too :)

When I got home from work, James was still working on the house. I grabbed a little snack and caught up on the world while I waited for him to finish. By 6:30 we were meeting up with friends for dinner.. (Yes I went out to eat twice in one day.. it’s my birthday weekend dude!) I had an amazing salad.. But I did accidentally eat a mozzarella stick with sauce that had meat in it.. I have never heard of meat sauce being served with mozzarella sticks.. but it happened.. Thankfully I didn’t actually ingest a piece of meat.. I think I would have thrown up! (But it’s still icky.)

After dinner we headed out to play pool

Martinis were there too :)

Oh, incase your wondering.. I suck at pool.

Sunday I had to work again.. it went by pretty quickly and I was home by 3. James and I tossed the kids in the car and made our way to Starbucks… Hydro insisted on jamming his head between James and the side of the car.. and then gave me the look of death when I took a picture..

Kids! My dad dropped by so we had dinner and hung in for the night.. James and I re-watched “Religious” the documentary so that my dad could see it.. Bill Maher knows his shit.

MONDAY! (Aka my actual birthday)

Unfortunately James had to work.. so we got up and had out normal routine.. I went to the gym and did some legs and a little arms:

-Leg press @200lbs 3x15

-Dual pulley row @27.5lbs per arm 3x10

-Deadlifts @70 lbs+the bar 3x12

-Squats @160 1 set of 10 and @90 1 set of 10

-Biceps curls @20/ triceps curls @ 20 2x8

- Treadmill 15 minutes with 6, 45 second sprints in the middle

I came home to refuel

Banana

Romaine

Plain greek yogurt

Spirulina

Bee Pollen

Protein powder

I showered and got ready for my birthday present (from J) He had made me an appointment for a massage! And I actually had 3 more massages to use in the future.. Seriously the best gift ever. I have been to a massage therapist in the past and loved every minute of it. It was my first time getting a massage from Jen.. and she amazing.. I love a deep tissue massage.. it can be painful at times, but it really works old kinks out! I’m still sore 2 days later.. she kicked my butt! I didn’t want to get up.. I could have slept right on the massage table.. but I needed to get moving because I had a lunch date with my dad!

Dad and I went to a local Indian restaurant, I totally didn’t take any pictures.. but it was awesome. I got Chana Masala (a chick pea curry dish) and some kind of spicy veggie curry and Brown rice. Yum and Yum! After lunch I dropped dad back off at home and went to meet up with my mom at Starbucks for some birthday coffee. We hung out for a couple of hours chatting and such and then I was off again!

I ran in the door, changed into my workout attire and was off to the studio in 5 minutes flat! I had totally forgotten to prepare a class with all of the birthday hoopla.. so I grabbed a deck of cards on the way out.. and just picked four exercises to go with the suits..

-Burpees

-V-ups

-Mountain Climbers

-Jump squats

(Modifications were available so the intensity could be varied)

Number cards were face value, Face cards were 11 and aces were 12 reps.

Class ended up being awesome! I had 4 new to me students, who totally rocked it BTW, and we had a blast.. Ok well I had a blast while they complained.. but they are always good sports!

Finally I was able to go home and enjoy the rest of the night!

James put dinner together, it was already on the table when I walked in.. There were also sweet potatoes.. YUM

After dinner James and I did something new.. (backstory coming)

A friend of ours shared my birthday. Chuck was like a big brother to me for years.. We had a falling out around my 21st birthday and I held a grudge.. We ran into each other at a gas station months later. He called my name and we chatted awkwardly for a few minutes, (the whole time I was thinking about how mad at him I was) We hugged.. And the was the last time I saw him. Chuck committed suicide not long after…

For the last 5 years, I’ve felt guilty that I let something so stupid get in the way of being there for my friend. Our birthday has had this black cloud following it- I couldn’t make peace with what happened, I just felt sad. A few days ago, I decided that I needed to make an effort to move on.. So I came up with a little ritual. Back in the day, Chuck and I would dance around like silly little kids any time “Octopus’s Garden” from the Beetles came on… so in his memory James and I put on the song and danced around singing.. afterwards we toasted

“To Chuck, birthdays are never the same without you. See you in another life brother”

Afterwards I was ready for the main event..

HOMEMADE ice cream cake.. I have the best husband ever.. Vanilla ice cream, a layer of caramel, more vanilla ice cream, frosted with whipped cream, chocolate shaving and drizzle, and a sprinkle of coconut.. AMAZING.

The final chapter…(Tuesday night) Hanging out with Paula who gave me this singing card